Maya Dead and Dreaming by Lana Sabarwal
My take on the book:
Set in Shogie, Washington, in 1952, Maya, Dead and Dreaming by Lana Sabarwal opens fourteen years after the death of Maya Hickman. Her once best friend, Munna Dhingra, receives a mysterious letter about Maya’s death — and suddenly starts seeing her old friend’s reflection everywhere. Maya was the daughter of one of the most powerful families in this small, sleepy town. Her death was originally ruled a freak accident; she was found face down in the creek behind her house, possibly heavily intoxicated during a house party.
Rattled by this sudden letter, Munna seeks help from Andrew, whom she assists at Shogie University. Intrigued by the letter and the local whispers about the Hickman family, Andrew brings in his friend and psychoanalyst, Karenina, to help understand it. As the small town web of jealousy, betrayal and relationships unravels, the question persists — why did Maya die?
What sets this one apart from a straightforward mystery is how much weight it gives to what is underneath the plot. Instead of keeping the story like a puzzle, the author mixed grief, immigrant loneliness and the invisble life women in tight, watchful communities like Shogie end up living. Munna’s own unraveling including her guilt, her memory and her sense of being an unreliable narrator even of her own life is well presented by the author. The story sensibly depicts what the town and Munna herself have kept buried all these years.
The atmosphere of Shogie is an invisible character with foggy streets, creaky floors and life in the 1950s adding the old world charm. The prose is vivid and unhurried, unlike a typical thriller, which may or may not appeal to all readers, as it forces the reader to spend time with it instead of rushing through to the final reveal.
A hauntingly written mystery that lingers well past its final page, this one makes you sit with your thoughts about memory, silence, and the debts that time never really erases.
My rating:
4/5.